How far 'off trail'? Breaking your own trail? Or for skiing hiking trails and such where folks may have tramped. Might be packed by other skiers and users but no grooming. Or do you mean crust-ish? For such skiing -- firm conditions -- wouldn't Fischer Sport Glass be fine? Waxable, full-length, 50mm. Then there's the Fischer Country at 58, also full-length waxer but I find them heavy and soft. Heck, if you're talking somewhat soft, semi-unbroken snow -- fresh few inches over a hiking trail, say -- then a light lively wood ski loves that kind of thing.

JeffOYB wrote:How far 'off trail'? Breaking your own trail? Or for skiing hiking trails and such where folks may have tramped. Might be packed by other skiers and users but no grooming. Or do you mean crust-ish? For such skiing -- firm conditions -- wouldn't Fischer Sport Glass be fine? Waxable, full-length, 50mm. Then there's the Fischer Country at 58, also full-length waxer but I find them heavy and soft. Heck, if you're talking somewhat soft, semi-unbroken snow -- fresh few inches over a hiking trail, say -- then a light lively wood ski loves that kind of thing.

Thanks for the reply! It does need to be a "backcountry" ski- for skiing from my doorstep. I have access to 100s of kms of woods trails/roads from my homestead. So- the only "track" that I may end up is returning on my own.

I live in central New Brunswick, Canada. In this local climate we get a lot of snowfall- but our weather is still somewhat maritime-influenced. Therefore, deep, soft, powder can quickly turn to dense, packed snow, and then can turn to hardpack. There is often short periods with thick crust in between the powder and the hard pack. In between the large snowfalls, we typically get up to several inches of fresh stuff on top of the hard base.

I have a variety of wide xcountry skis for breaking trail in deep powder.

My old, narrow, double-cambered Karhus, broke a couple of years ago. So I have been relying on my "narrowest" powder ski, a Madshus Eon (83mm shovel) for skiing on the hard snow surfaces. Although an excellent ski- the Eon is a very soft 1.5-cambered ski that excels primarily in up to 12 inches of powder- it is very inefficient over a hard base- not enough camber for efficient wax pocket and glide.

So in answer to your question- this ski will not be doing any hard trail breaking. This ski needs to have enough camber for an effective wax pocket; but enough forgiving flex to cruise on variable terrain.

I have limited experience in using different skis. I went through the same process as you however and ended up with the Glitterinds. They size longer (according to their specs) and have a stiffer camber than many other bc skis. this makes them built for speed and glide, not for turning . Also, they're pretty narrow, so they don't float that well. These characteristics match up well with your conditions however. I'm really happy with mine. google Glitterinds and check out the reviews.

Sounds like cool skiing! I say "just get a ski." :) You're on the right track. Fischer makes/made a full length approx 60mm ski, the Country, 1.5 camber, in both wax and nonwax. Versatile. A bit heavy, I thought, but bombproof.

I prefer their older, lighter Touring Light ski line that has a double camber. But doubles really only work on packed trails. The firm, high camber results in missed kicks in soft conditions. I do mostly enough casually-packed technical trail skiing so I love mine totally but I do have to watch my technique. Also, they are now really rare, from early 90's.